Tag Archives: schools
Board Of Education Takes Initiative
By the Pennsauken Board of Education: Nick Perry, President; Allyson Meloni-Scavuzzo, Vice President; Cheryl Duffy; Michael Hurley; Diane Johnson; Leona Moss; Meg Snyder; Orlando Viera; and JoAnn Young
As an entity that often “works behind the scenes,” it is difficult to understand what the Pennsauken Board of Education actually accomplishes throughout the year. In this month’s article, we would like to share some important board initiatives that have taken place during the last 12 months, along with some proposed programs, all of which highlight areas important to providing our students with a quality education in a safe environment, while maintaining fiscal responsibility to Pennsauken citizens.
Baldwin Celebrates Read Across America
Baldwin School celebrated “Read Across America” during the first week in March. Teachers incorporated rhyming and fun Dr. Seuss activities in each of their classrooms. The students enjoyed dressing up for Wacky Wednesday and caught a case of stripes with “The Cat in the Hat.”
Longfellow Student Council Makes A Difference
The student council representatives at Longfellow Elementary School have been working hard to help others in need. In February, students collected numerous items to donate to the Almost Home Animal Shelter. Ms. Grant and Mrs. Steck, as well as student council classroom representatives and their families, visited the animals at the shelter and delivered the donations.
PHS Latin Club Visits Carson’s “Chapter Chatters”
By Julie Amer, Tara Barnstead, and Melissa Savino
Members of Pennsauken High School’s Latin Club performed a version of the myth of King Midas to students at Carson Elementary.
The “Chapter Chatters,” the book club at Carson Elementary School, read the book, “The Chocolate Touch,” by Patrick Skene Catling. In February, Mrs. Kubichek’s Latin Club from Pennsauken High School joined a book club meeting, where they performed a version of the myth of King Midas. Students from the Chapter Chatters were encouraged to draw similarities between “The Chocolate Touch” and the story of King Midas. The Latin Club will continue to work with the students in the Carson School Book Club meetings by performing plays of mythology and helping to facilitate student discussion.
Phifer Middle School Holds Annual Career Day
By Frank Sinatra, AAP Editor
Last month, Howard M. Phifer Middle School held its annual career day, an almost day-long event where students can interact with professionals from a variety of fields.
“It’s a special day where kids get to see glimpses of their potential selves for a couple hours,” explains Thomas Honeyman, principal at Phifer. “Our career day committee organized a great event. It takes a ton of effort to put together over 40 professional guests and 800 students and coordinate the schedule. Logistically, it’s a challenge, but it’s so worth it.”
Jumping For Hearts, Bear Buck Bonanza At Roosevelt School
Click on the photos to find out more on these great events at Roosevelt Elementary!
A Commitment To School Safety
The Pennsauken Board of Education, working in partnership with both the school administration and Pennsauken’s municipal government, has helped to coordinate a series of drills that allow local first responders to train at school facilities.
The issue of school safety is of paramount importance in the Pennsauken School District. To that end, the Board of Education, working in partnership with both the school administration and Pennsauken’s municipal government, has helped to coordinate a series of drills that allow local first responders – EMS, firefighters, and police – to train at school facilities.
“There have been so many attacks in schools, the procedures have changed dramatically,” says Board President Nick Perry. “The only way to leverage what we’ve learned from these incidents is for our first responders to get hands-on training in the buildings themselves.”
The drills, many of which were held over winter break to take full advantage of school buildings, allowed Pennsauken’s police, fire department, and EMS squad an opportunity to practice a series of rapid response scenarios. In addition to these training exercises, all Pennsauken schools conduct both fire and “shelter in place” drills on a continual basis, to help better prepare teachers, staff, and students in the case of an emergency.
“We have a responsibility to make school facilities as secure as possible, allowing our community’s children to be safe from the time they get on the bus in the morning, to the time they get home from school in the afternoon.”
As part of this commitment, the Board of Education and school administration have received invaluable feedback from Pennsauken’s first responders, who had an opportunity to evaluate school security features to not only see if any weaknesses are present, but also find ways to further enhance school safety.
“There are a lot of things that now have been developed in the realm of school safety that we are working to address,” explains Perry. “We, as well as the school administration and Pennsauken’s municipal government, are continually looking to further enhance the safety of school staff and students. It’s an important, ongoing process.”
Students Enjoy Delair Disco
In late January, students enjoyed dancing at the annual Delair Disco.
Children attending Delair Elementary have been earning Dolphin Dollars as part of the positive behavior intervention and support system at the school. Students earn Dolphin Dollars for being helpful, working hard, following directions, being courteous, having perfect attendance, good behavior and not receiving any discipline slips. They were then allowed to use the Dolphin Dollars to “buy” admittance into the Delair Disco.
Students, teachers and staff had a great time dancing at this special event!
Phifer Middle School Supports Soldiers Serving Abroad
During the third week of December 2015, students at Phifer Middle School completed Christmas Cards to send to soldiers in Afghanistan. Students picked up cards during lunch, completed them with a brief note or poem, and then returned them to the Phifer School Store at the end of the week. In all, there were about 200 cards mailed!
The kids wrote impressive messages that showed their support for the military, and compassion for the soldiers being away from their families. The cards were sent to Bagram Air Base, the largest military base in Afghanistan which houses soldiers from all military branches.
Phifer Middle School is hoping to send cards out again next December, doubling the number of cards completed.
Revisiting The Issue Of Student Residency
By the Pennsauken Board of Education: Nick Perry, President; Allyson Meloni-Scavuzzo, Vice President; Cheryl Duffy; Michael Hurley; Diane Johnson; Leona Moss; Meg Snyder; Orlando Viera; and JoAnn Young
As we approach spring, the Pennsauken School District is already planning for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year. We will begin our budget process in the coming weeks, which will allow us to plan for the implementation of our district goals. In developing the budget, our enrollment numbers are part of the equation. Our total enrollment for the purpose of our budget is based on three categories of students: students who reside in Pennsauken who attend school in our district; students who reside in Pennsauken and attend private schools for special needs services; and those who reside in Pennsauken but attend charter schools. If children do not reside in Pennsauken and fall into one of these categories, they are not eligible to be educated by Pennsauken School District. Identifying ineligible children who are fraudulently being educated in our district is a major concern of the Board of Education, as it places an unfair financial burden on our district and on the taxpayers of Pennsauken.
